You do need to consult a physician. BP is what it is at the time it was taken. You need to take morning, afternoon, evening, post exercise and random readings over to time to make any sense of it. Diet, exercise, weight, stress and a number of things can effect your pressure. What I am saying if you take your BP 1,000 times under varied conditions and there are a couple or three 150/99 ish readings thrown in at random, it is way different result than having most of your readings in that range.
Long term hypertension is a serious medical issue. You don't right now have enough evidence to figure out if you have a problem with hypertension. But figuring out if you do is fairly important. Having a hypertension issue and ignoring it won't help it go away Good luck.

Definitely get it checked out, but to reassure you... every time I see a medical professional my blood pressure spikes.

I ended up getting a 24hr blood pressure monitor earlier this year and it came back fine. It might be you need something similar.

1. Does your mom or dad have high BP? It could be genetic. You can have smaller blood vessels so BP is high.
2. Don't eat salty food. Your body will retain water, so your BP will go up.
3. I don't know your height and weight but try to lose weight and keep yourself slim. BP will go down to certain point, but once you hit the bottom, you won't be able to lower more than that.
4. Cholesterol is your enemy. Do a lot of cardio, eat good fat, so cholesterol won't build up in your blood vessels.

I was on BP medication for 2 years but I was able to stop taking them after I started some serious cardio workout.
Keep in mind. High BP is a silent killer. Good luck!!
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Get it checked out but don't worry too much, as you've no solid data to base it on yet, and there may well be no issue, or nothing significant.

As others said, blood pressure varies continuously. Circumstances during the measurement can have a huge impact, especially your state of stress. White coat syndrome is a well known phenomenon where many people's BP spikes simply because they're aware it's being tested and that causes an involuntary physical response. Mine always goes up significantly when checked during a physical as compared to the same reading taken at home or compared with the values from a 24hr monitor.

My own BP (from non-spiked readings) is still a little high. They call it "pre-hypertensive". I haven't checked in a while but as far as I can remember it's in the range of around 130/85. I had it comprehensively checked out 7 years ago when I was in my mid 30s and the conclusion was that it posed no real risk, and was almost certainly hereditary. It hasn't gotten any higher, at least as of last year when I last checked it, so I don't worry about it. Get your BP rechecked by a doctor and they may well refer you for a 24 hour monitor (you wear a mobile automatic BP checker that logs values throughout a 24hr period). That'll tell them if it's actually high or not. If it is, a cardiologist will assess all the possible risk factors and potential causes, e.g. family history and cholesterol, etc. They may also do ECGs and echo-cardiogrammes, or at the extreme a cardiac CAT scan to determine if there's anything to worry about.

I got around 145-150 and 5'10"
No issue on the cardio.
I'm going to pickup a home kit and test it for a few days

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IG - @ryanppax
http://www.geluminati.com
Use code ST5 for $5 off your order

I've been on the high side my whole life... not "high" but on the high side of normal. Doc has never been too concerned about it, but it basically stays in the back of my mind that I don't have any real wiggle room to get lazy with workouts / nutrition for any length of time.

I took a week long first responder course for work, and the EMTs teaching it would check me 2-3 times a day since they had never seen someone as fit as I was with pressure on the top end of the scale, meanwhile having a resting heart rate in the low 40s.

As has been mentioned, check it more than just once. I've had readings over 150, but I can usually attribute it to some external factor and it comes back down an hour later.

Yes. I'm 29 and I've had "elevated" BP for a few years.

My mother's side all have hypertension. I recently bought a Withings BP cuff that syncs to my phone. I used to take it every morning, but through a diligent effort to de-stress, I've had it come down. Two big things I did to lower it were (1) greatly reduce espresso/coffee consumption; and (2) meditate. I went from drinking a few shots and about 3 or 4 cups of coffee a day to drinking one shot in the morning before training and one cup (maybe) at work. Plus I generally meditate 10-15 minutes every morning.

While this obviously isn't a magic bullet (and I'm fighting genetics), I've seen some good ground. I'm consistently sub-130/70. While not perfect, it isn't too bad and my primary care physician isn't super concerned.

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@floathammerholdon | @partners_in_tri

I'm probably not considered a "young guy" (I'm 46), but I've had HBP since I was younger. Mine is just in my genes (my daughter is 16 and has it as well). Obviously go to the doc so they can rule out anything serious. They thought maybe my daughter's was related to her kidneys, but after extensive testing it was not. Either way if you truly have HBP you'll take a pill a day that may cause some dyhydration/dry throat, but other than that nothing will change except having a lower BP.

Just about to turn 29 and got started on BP meds 6 months ago. It has been high for a long time and I thought it was because I was a bit overweight and eating not the best diet but after getting to a fit 6’2” 185 and eating super clean I still was reading high (like 140/90 stuff). Turns out it was more hereditary than I thought as my moms whole side of the family has hypertension. Since I started the meds (lisinopril and hydrochlorothiazide) I have felt much better and it alleviated some symptoms I hadn’t actually linked to high BP such as headaches and red eyes (was in my last year of pharmacy school and thought that was just from studying all the time) and the diuretic pulled 5 pounds of fluid off I didn’t know was there (hello veins! ).

Like others have said, get it checked out and monitor it. I feel much better taking a pill everyday knowing that I am protected from all the scary stuff that hypertension is linked too.

Tl;dr go to your doctor

39 now but @22 my doctor did a standard checkup and found my BP high. Right away he put me on 2x24h continuous measurements (measures four times an hour or something), to make sure this was not just me afraid of the doctor :-)

BP still showed high, then did all the standard tests and questions (family history /eating/training evaluation etc to check if it was lifestyle oriented or not). It was not lifestyle caused so sent to a specialist, found some areas of the heart thicker (I.e. stronger muscle) than the rest of the heart from beating against the higher pressure. Luckily discovered so early that there was no permanent damage.

Downside: I take a small pill every morning for 16 years and will co to us with it for the rest of my life.
Upside: I have a very healthy heart and BP now

Not quite the young guy but have raced tri a long time, so lots of training, eat right, resting HR mid 50s, but BP still high-ish so Lisinopril for the last decade w/o problems. Get it checked out. A stroke would be no bueno.

While lifestyle can elevated your BP, some people just have high blood pressure (probably often has to do with their kidneys). Just like some otherwise healthy people have high cholesterol. Factors that you can't do anything about sometimes matter too.

updating this thread FWIW, Ive been measuring daily and its all been pretty normal after I get out of bed and at night. Obviously elevated after some chick fila and coffee and immediately getting home from work. Within 10 minutes of sitting down it drops to pretty normal levels.

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IG - @ryanppax
http://www.geluminati.com
Use code ST5 for $5 off your order

ONLY when my wife is around. ;-)

In my early 20s I'd routinely have elevated BP for 12-24 hours after harder training sessions, typically ~140s/70 and sometimes 150s/70.

Even at rest it'd be high 120s/ low 130s while training. Taking a week + off would result in lower values in the high teens or low 20s. This continued all the way into my 30s until I started taking beet root powder.

Actually noticed it first when trying the beet elite. After rides my bp would be in the low 120s and the next day back in the 1 teens even after races. Started taking beet root powder every day (not the hyper expensive beet elite, just regular stuff) and noticed a marked improvement.

Still get mid 120s after big hard rides, but morning is now typically 1teens/60s with regular beet root powder consumption. I usually take it in smoothies 4-5 times a week.